JERUSALEM, 1 February 2007 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office yesterday said the government is looking into moving a stretch of its separation wall deeper into the West Bank to include two Jewish settlements, a route that would leave thousands of Palestinians on the Israeli side of the fence.
Palestinian officials immediately condemned the plan as an attempt by Israel to annex territory they claim for a future independent state. Olmert has approved altering the route of the controversial wall in a move that will create two Palestinian enclaves, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The new route must still be approved by the Cabinet, it said. The wall will be moved about five kilometers east of the pre-1967 border known as the Green Line, near the Israeli city of Modin northwest of Jerusalem, Haaretz reported.
It will mean that a Palestinian village of 17,000 residents will end up with the wall on one side and a fence surrounding the settlement on the other. Another Palestinian village of 2,000 residents will be enclosed by the barrier on three sides.
According to Haaretz, the new route would enclose the Jewish settlements of Naaleh and Nili on the Israeli side of the wall. The new route would also enclose roughly 20,000 Palestinians between the wall and the frontier with Israel.
Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Olmert, said the Haaretz report was untrue because Olmert “couldn’t simply overturn a Cabinet decision” on the original route of the barrier.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator with Israel, said the Israeli move “undermines everything we’re doing to revive the peace process.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli court yesterday found ex-Justice Minister Haim Ramon guilty of sexual harassment, dealing a blow to key ally Olmert as he plans a major Cabinet reshuffle. “We find the accused guilty of the charge of an indecent act,” said Hayuta Kohan, chief justice of the three-member panel.
The unanimous verdict in the case — one of a spate of scandals involving top Israeli officials — was eagerly awaited in political circles as it will have a direct impact on Olmert’s teetering coalition. Observers said the conviction of one of Olmert’s closest allies who helped found his centrist Kadima party with former Premier Ariel Sharon could also have serious implications for the beleaguered premier himself.
“This is not Ramon’s trial, it’s the trial of Olmert’s government,” Daniel Ben Simon, a political analyst for Haaretz, told AFP. “Ramon is a person who masterminded the government and if the architect falls, there is a risk that the entire building will fall after him.”
